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The Royal College of Surgeons says urgent patients aren't sufficiently protected by the 18-week and cancer waiting times targets. Their argument is a straw man. But that doesn't mean they are wrong.
Despite a national breach of the admitted patient target, there is no sign that the current waiting list initiative had much effect on long waiters in June. Also the waiting list is edging closer to the point where even the incomplete pathways target could be at risk.
The current governmental flap over elective waiting times is so fascinating, so contorted, and yet so familiar that it is hard to know where to begin.
"Oh, didn't we tell you we're doing a waiting list initiative?" Clinical support services, such as radiology, can feel a bit miffed when they are suddenly hit with a surge of work that was planned ages ago but nobody told them about. Fortunately it's easy to build them into your plans.
The English waiting list topped 3 million, and is now the biggest since February 2008, and 20 per cent bigger than at the last General Election. Despite that, long-waits have improved under the Coalition.
It's going to be an 18-weeks nail-biter in the run-up to the General Election, especially for the adjusted admitted target.
Your deadline for submitting the new "operational resilience and capacity plans" is the end of July. Here's how to make light work of it.
English waiting lists narrowly avoided two rotten headlines in April, and improved where it matters most. But trouble is still building in the longest-wait specialties.
How the old admitted and non-admitted targets pushed 58 per cent of pressured Trusts into perverse patient scheduling in 2013-14.
The rise in Scottish long-waiting outpatients has been partially reversed, but the underlying pressures continue to build.